Fill out census form, or lose influence

Published 6:12 pm, Monday, March 22, 2010

By Don DeCesare

The Founders wanted us all counted: "Representatives and direct taxes shall be apportioned among the several States ... according to their respective numbers. ... The actual enumeration shall be made ...within every subsequent term of ten years."

There, in Article One, Section 2, of the U.S. Constitution is the legal and historic basis of the U.S. Census. Once every 10 years they come to count us all -- not solely voters, not solely citizens, but everybody -- so they can represent us and so they can tax us. Therefore, each Census shall determine how many representatives we have in the House of Representatives, how much money we must send to Washington and, by extension, how much comes back.

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For a small state like Connecticut, fewer representatives certainly means less money from Washington. These "respective numbers" are powerfully proportional: The more people, the more representatives, the more money -- our money -- coming back. All those federal programs, stimulus and otherwise, support our jobs, our schools, our public works, our security. It is our money, and we are proportionally entitled to get it back.

After the Census of 2000, certifying overall population growth in the United States, many congressional districts, including all of Connecticut's, had to be re-drawn. For the next 10 years, each representative would represent 650,000 people. Congressional sources say that after the Census of 2010, each will be representing about 700,000 people, given the country's already known growth during the past 10 years.

Connecticut now has five members in the House of Representatives. Before the Census of 2000, the state had six. There are demographers who think a Connecticut count in 2010, incorrect on the low side, could cost the state another seat, dropping the number to four. That lost Connecticut seat and the associated federal financial distributions would go where the people have gone -- to the Southwest. Such a loss would truly be bad for Connecticut. It is an historic irony that the Founders, anticipating the first Census, decreed the number of representatives for each of the thirteen original States; Connecticut was given an initial number of five.

For Connecticut to hold its current five seats, the state needs to have 3.5 million people counted by the Census of 2010. Best estimates from various sources number the state's current population at about 3.6 million. Just barely enough. However, were there to be significant under-reporting and the final tally fall below 3.5 million, Connecticut's fifth seat would be in jeopardy.

The Census forms are now in our hands or, in too many households, in our drawers. Filling them out accurately and encouraging family, friends, neighbors, co-workers to do the same is in our individual and collective best interest. Selfishly, we must strive to hold the five seats we now have, regardless of what we may think of any of the individual occupants.

We must -- willfully -- be counted. Give `em what they want so we get what we deserve.